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NATO
& the
Tobacco Plus Expo
are Teaming up!
Tom Briant
will be
presenting educational
sessions at the
2017 TPE
show
in Las Vegas.
For more information,
see p. 80
P.46
PHOTOS BY ANTHONY CAMERA
I
t was November 2014 and the to-
bacco battleground was in Westmin-
ster,Massachusetts.The local board of
health had proposed an outright ban
of all tobacco sales—the first of its kind.
There was no doubt that such a measure
would devastate retailers selling tobacco in
that town, including tobacco outlets and
convenience stores. The National Asso-
ciation of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) was
there and ready—it had organized a ma-
jor grass-roots campaign that was greatly
responsible for the attendance of a large
chunk of the town’s population—about
500 citizens—at the board of health’s pub-
lic hearing in a school gymnasium.
The way NATO’s executive director
Tom Briant recalls it, virtually everyone
there opposed the ban. “We had people
waving the American flag, and the crowd
was so supportive speaking against the ban
on tobacco sales that the chairwoman of
I
NATO Executive Director Tom Briant